Health and Fitness

What is the Chevron osteotomy for treating bunions?

A Chevron osteotomy is a commonly done surgical procedure to take care of bunions on the feet. The bunion is the enlargement and a misalignment of the great toe or hallux that can cause the big toe to angle towards the lesser toes. It very often results in a bump on the base of the great toe or hallux that may grow to be uncomfortable. There are numerous surgical treatments which they can use to take care of a bunion. Each of the procedures has a variety of indications as to who it will be the most appropriate to use on. By using a Chevron osteotomy, the feet and ankle orthopaedic or podiatric surgeon cuts a “V” at the end of the long bone leading to the big toe (the metatarsal) after which swivels the end of the bone to straighten the big toe.

Typically the reasons for a Chevron osteotomy usually are for younger individuals who have no osteoarthritis within the big toe joint and the angle of the deformity is regarded as slight to medium. It is usually the surgery of choice for younger sports athletes, although elderly people with moderate bunion will do well with this surgery. The crucial prerequisite is a big toe joint that is congruent and without any osteoarthritis in the joint. This Chevron osteotomy will be contraindicated if there is a significant amount of deformity or if the adductor muscles and also ligaments are tight or there's an incongruity in the hallux joint and osteoarthritis in the joint.

The end results of bunion surgery after the Chevron osteotomy usually are great. In a research study by Hans-Jorg Trnka et al (published in the JBJS in 2000) where they studied 57 people that underwent the Chevron osteotomy with 5 year follow up. These researchers recorded that the flexibility of the great toe joint reduced between the initial review and the two year follow-up however wasn't any worse at 5 years. They also noted no changes in the angle of the hallux valgus deformity relating to the two year and 5 year evaluations. Individuals older than fifty years did as well as younger patients that does put a question mark on the Chevron osteotomy largely being used for younger individuals. The Chevron osteotomy operation may damage the blood vessels close to the bottom of the big toe joint, but these investigators found zero cases of osteonecrosis with the metatarsal head at both the two year or five year follow-ups periods. However, they did find that there was osteoarthritis of the great toe or hallux joint in eight feet at the 2 year review and in 11 feet at five yr review.

As with any operation for any bunion, the Chevron osteotomy is a great choice for the proper reasons and when carried out by a surgeon who is informed about these indicators as well as contraindications and also has the specialized skills to accomplish the procedure meticulously. As with all surgical treatments you can find sometimes undesirable final results, although with this procedure many of them can certainly be not hard to fix. If you need bunion surgery, you really need to take it up with the surgeon which treament is better suggested to suit your needs and what the outcomes are most likely to be.

Health and Fitness

How useful are the bunion correctors at correcting bunions?

Bunions are an enlargement of the great toe or hallux joint of the foot are usually associated with a deviation in the angle of the great toe or hallux. The only real way to get rid of bunions is with surgery, but there are many non-surgical alternatives that might be considered which can lead to some small improvement in the angle of the toe and help lessen any symptoms that the bunion might have. These are more prevalent in women and more frequent in those that wear improperly fitting shoes. There is also a inherited component to bunions as well, but that's not really well understood.

What can be done to stay away from surgery? Bunion correctors are splints that are usually used during the night and are designed to correct the position of the toe. They do usually aid at changing the angle of the toe a few degrees after a month or so. These types of bunion splints also assist in keeping the toes mobile and might help reduce some of the pain that you might get in the joint. Similarly, exercises to stretch and keep the big toe joint mobile is additionally likely to assist with the symptoms, but it will certainly not make the enlargement go away nor improve the angle of the great toe. Often padding may be used to get the pressure of the bunion from the shoe. They can be irritating to wear, but are very helpful in the event the shoe pressures on the bunion is part of the issue. One of the most crucial thing to do is to get the footwear fitted properly. The footwear play a major role in creating the bunion and also progressing it quicker if they don't fit appropriately. People that have bunions really do need to get out of the type of shoes that would have resulted in the bunion and get into footwear that do not put strain on the bunion.